Marcel Duchamp

Marcel Duchamp created puzzles for a living and influences a great many people 20 years after his death without them exactly knowing it. The ideas he set in motion through his art work, chess playing and abstention from making art reach into and connect mathematics, physics, dance, music, theatre, politics.

1904 he leaves his parents home and moves in with his brother Gaston in the Montmartre section of Paris.

Eventually he became disillusioned with the structure of how art is chosen to be displayed.

In 1916, after he became famous in the states resulting from the Armory Show 1913; he came to the states to start a new career. He was met at the dock by Walter Arensberg and his wife Louise. They went on to become his great friends and benefactors. They collected the largest collection of his artwork in existence. This collection now is in the Philedelphia Museum of Art.

Sources:
Motherwell, Robert "The Dada Painters and Poets: An Anthology", Harvard University Press, 1951
Rubin, William S., "Dada, Surrealism, and Their Heritage", Museum of Modern Art, NY, 1968.
Last Updated 05.09.04